Puppy Curse Chaos
by Zanza89
Summary: After the success of a dangerous mission, the strongest team in Fairy Tail find themselves cursed by a vengeful dark wizard. Will they find a way to lift the curse before something terrible happens?


"Kyaaahh!" Lucy yelped as she jumped to the side, trying desperately to dodge the flying fireballs that were chasing her around. "Why did I have to face an annoying guy like this?" A stray flame danced dangerously close to her precious blonde hair. She was getting really tired, and with no Spirits left to fight with, she felt completely helpless.

Her foe was a small weird-looking man, dressed in puffy, colorful clothes, with striped shoes that curled in loops at the toes. A number of small jingle bells were spread evenly across his attire, and a harlequin mask covered his face, making him look like a court jester. However, his huge amount of magic power wasn't even a tiny bit funny. Even Loke, the strongest of the Twelve Zodiac Spirits, had been no match for the giant flames running wild all over the place. Aquarius would have been a big help in this battle, but as there was no nearby source of water, calling her was currently impossible. And she'd probably just be mad and yell her throat sore because someone dared ruin her vacation anyway...

Several of the fireballs were now heading towards her at the same time. She miraculously dodged most of them somehow, but the last one caught her right lower leg, and she tripped. Screaming out in pain from the horrid burn that was turning her leg a nasty red color, she still refused to give up, despite her injuries and loss of magic power. She just barely managed to get back up on her feet, only to see the jester gather his power, seemingly preparing for something worse than what she'd already faced.

With her leg like this, she wasn't likely to be able to escape it. She didn't know what to do. A bunch of memories rushed through her mind. _Natsu.. Gray.. Erza.. Happy.. Everyone.._ Behind his mask, the jester smirked with self-content as he uttered the name of his next spell. "Great Fire Ocean: Rising Infernal Waves!"

Tears fell from Lucy's eyes as she closed them and prepared for what was about to come.

"Lucy! Watch out!" The young Celestial Wizard was tackled to the ground as a bright flash suddenly lit up the area for a split second, followed by a huge explosion, causing everything to be enveloped in roaring flames and overwhelming heat. At first Lucy was sure she had died, but snapped to her senses when she felt water dripping on her arms, and looked up to see a topless figure with dark blue hair standing over her. "..G-Gray?" she exclaimed in a surprised voice. "Yeah." The Ice Mage looked over his shoulder, his eyes meeting hers, which were still filled with tears, but now also brimming with happiness and gratitude.

"Tch, didn't get her, eh?" the jester muttered to himself in a disappointed voice. "Well, it doesn't matter, they can't defend against my magic forever!" he mused to himself, focusing the powerful sea of flames on the shield of ice, prying around for any weak spots.

"Sorry I'm late, I had a bit of trouble myself with that crazy lightning-using chick", Gray explained. "Thank you.." Lucy whispered, and a small smile spread across her face. "Anytime", he replied with a smile of his own, and squeezed out more magic power in an attempt to strengthen his melting Ice Shield that was currently surrounding them to provide protection against the magical flames trying to get inside.

"It's kind of beautiful, don't you think?" Lucy asked suddenly, staring almost admiringly at the swirling red mass through the shiny layer of ice. "What?" Gray belted out, "How can you think about such ridiculous things when we're about to get roasted alive?"

"I'm sorry!" the Celestial Wizard meeped, automatically putting her arms up defensively in front of her. "Hmph." The Ice Mage calmed down, and soon he too was staring at the nearly hypnotizing swirly movement of the fire that blazed outside. "Well.. I.. I guess that.. maybe it is kind of pretty…" he hesitantly admitted. "See! I told you!" Lucy said with a victorious smile on her face, pointing an accusing finger at Gray.

"Yeah yeah, whatever", he responded, his voice sounding strained as he fought to keep them safe. Lucy's happy grin changed to a worried look. Gray had started to breathe heavily, obviously exhausted, and this wasn't the time to joke around about silly things, no matter how pretty.

A crazy laugh suddenly echoed through the air, somehow reaching them through all the fire and ice. "How long can you keep that defense up, I wonder?" the equally crazy voice of the jester said, for some reason making Lucy think of being chased by creepy clowns in a dark amusement park. She shivered at the thought. _"Damn it! Where is Natsu when you need him?"_ She wondered what took him so long. They could really have used his help right about now. Her eyes then fell on her burnt leg. The color had turned a mix of dark red and purple, and was covered in nasty-looking blisters. _"Crap.. That looks even worse than I thought.."_ She made a disgusted face, just the look of the injury made it hurt even more.

Gray fell to his knees, his breath ragged, and his arms shaking. "I..I can't.. My magic power is…" His voice was raspy, the words barely able to leave his lips. With her burnt leg constantly hurting, Lucy ground her teeth together to stop herself from screaming, and crawled the short distance to where Gray was just about ready to fall. "Gray, hang in there!" She reached out, put her hand on his shoulder, and focused on giving him what little magic power she had left. "It's no use.. Lucy.. neither of us.. has any power left.." Tears began falling from Lucy's eyes once more. "I know.. So, is this the end?" The thin layer of ice started cracking and flames were piercing through all around them. "Seems like it.." Gray answered, "It was nice.. knowing ya.." They squeezed their eyes shut, but soon reopened them as they heard something hit the ground with great force somewhere outside the fragmented, now almost non-existent ice barrier.

And suddenly, the flames were being drawn back! The enormous sea of fire was being sucked in the direction of the crashing noise they had heard just moments earlier. "Wh-What's going on?" the jester yelled, "My ultimate infernal ocean is disappearing!" Then they all saw the reason for the fire's odd behavior. Standing in the middle of the blazing sea was a young man, and he was sucking all the flames into his mouth! His white scarf and pink, pointy hair immediately gave him away.

"Natsu!" Lucy called out, and the mere sight of him out there in the fiery field gave hope to his teammates. "Looks like.. he made it.." Gray whispered with a smile, and then collapsed on the ground. The last few pieces of his Ice Shield shattered and evaporated as he lost consciousness. Something small and blue showed up in the corner of Lucy's eyes, and she quickly turned her head to face it. "Happy!" She threw her arms around the flying cat, his magical wings disappearing. "Aye!" Happy responded with the cutest voice imaginable, "Look, I found Gray's shirt!"

"Damn this! Who are you? And what the hell are you doing to my fire?" the jester barked at Natsu, who just finished sucking in all the flames. "Huh? Your fire? I think it's mine now", Natsu replied devilishly, "And now that I've eaten, I'm all revved up!" Natsu looked at the jester, then at Lucy, Gray and Happy. "Happy, take care of 'em, will ya?" Natsu flashed a big, friendly smile their way, it looked almost childish. "Aye, sir!" Happy responded, saluting. Lucy smiled back at Natsu. "Just make sure you kick that guy's butt real good!" she said, and waved a finger at the jester.

"Tch, like he could ever beat me!" the jester retorted, "Just because he got rid of some of my flames don't mean that I can't create new ones and turn him to ashes!" Huge fireballs appeared in the palms of his hands, and he threw them with great power straight at Natsu, who jumped up and over them. The power-packed flames exploded when they hit the ground where the pink-haired fire-eater had been standing only a second earlier. The bright light from the massive impact forced Lucy and Happy to raise their arms to protect their eyes, and the heat wave that spread across the area caused nearby plants to dry out and catch fire.

"Ugh, we can't stay here!" Lucy was first to speak up. "Aye", Happy agreed, and skipped over to Gray. "Hey, Gray! This isn't a good place to sleep in, so wake up already!" Happy said demandingly, poking poor unconscious Gray on the cheek. "Happy, that won't work, Gray used up all his magic power. He's not waking up for a while", Lucy explained, and moved to put Gray's shirt back on his body. "There, now you have something to grab onto, Happy", she said, "Fly with Gray to somewhere safe. I'll follow you on the ground."

Happy looked at Lucy's injured leg with a slightly worried expression on his face, but still took hold of the collar on Gray's shirt. "Aye, let's leave that masked guy to Natsu. He's good with fire, so he'll beat that weird clown in no time!" Happy reactivated his Aera, the magical white wings reappearing on his back. He flapped them and lifted off the ground with the limp Gray hanging beneath him, and took off towards the thick forest to find a suitable place to wait for Natsu to finish the battle.

Lucy turned around to see the jester lunging more giant fireballs at Natsu, who simply laughed and easily dodged them. _"Not that you even have to dodge them.."_ she thought, and couldn't help but smile a little despite the severe pain in her leg as she turned her back on the fighting pair and stumbled off towards the forest to find Happy and Gray. At least this way, Natsu could fight at full strength without worrying about them getting in the way of his rampaging. After all, he was the master of destroying stuff.

Natsu watched them leave. "Right, guess it's about time to finish this then", he said, a childish grin splayed across his face. The jester stared at the young man. "Finish? Oh, we will finish it alright, but you won't be around long enough to see it!" He gathered all the remaining fireballs in one of his palms, compressing his magic flames into a single small bullet of pure blazing energy. "This is my specialty", he said with an evil smirk, "this fiery little bullet contains enough energy to bore right through a 3 feet thick steel wall without even slowing down." Natsu looked at the magical bullet, and then simply smiled and crossed his arms. "Interesting", he replied with a smirk of his own, confidence filling his voice. "Give me your best shot!"

"Tch, I'll wipe that smug look off your face", the jester said, stretching his right arm out in front of him. He formed his hand into the shape of a gun, the bullet of fire following his hand and aligning itself next to the two fingers making out the barrel. He put his left hand under his lower right arm to steady his aim. "Say your prayers, boy, and prepare to die!" He aimed straight at Natsu's head. "Ultimate Fire Spell: Ridik Uloz's Blazing End!" The bullet shot towards Natsu at an incredible speed, a tail of huge flames trailing behind it. The projectile connected with its target and the blazing tail exploded and spread, incinerating the area completely.

"Hehe, that'll shut him up.." The jester turned and started off towards the forest, "Now all that's left is to clean out the run-aways." He smiled grimly to himself as the fire died down some distance away to his left. "Was that it?" A hint of disappointment was present in the low voice that could be heard through the still dispersing flames. The jester stopped in his track. _"It can't be..."_ he thought as he slowly turned around. His jaw dropped at the sight before him. In the midst of the scorched earth stood Natsu. He had his head tilted upwards a bit, but otherwise he seemed perfectly unharmed, except for some smallish, weird marks of some sort that had appeared on his arms.

The jester's eyes widened. "H-How can this be possible?" Fear was now evident in his voice, his eyes flickering wildly from side to side as he struggled to figure out how this pink-haired, funny-looking youngster could have survived his ultimate attack that had never failed him before. Natsu brought his head down, the movement causing the jester to whip his head in Natsu's direction once again. "W-WHAT?" The jester couldn't believe what he saw. The bullet was stuck in the brat's mouth! The little bastard had caught it between his teeth! And he was chewing on it! If it hadn't been the jester's mission to destroy these wizard-flies, he might actually have found the sight rather comical.

After a few seconds of simply gawking at the bullet being chewed to pieces, the jester noticed that the same marks that had appeared on the fire-eater's arms were also present in his face. And, they weren't marks, they were...scales! And he also had what seemed to be fangs in his mouth. They weren't that big, but they were there, visible.

"Ridik Uloz? Is that your real name?" Natsu finally spoke up after finishing his fiery meal. Then he started laughing. "Seriously? That's ridiculous!" He laughed so hard that he almost toppled over. The jester, Ridik, gaped in shock at the laughing fanged mage covered in scales. Then his face turned red and he growled. He couldn't help that his parents had given him such an annoying name!

And that was when he remembered. A rumor had been going around, telling of a young pink-haired wizard that no fire could touch. "Y-You…" he started, "That appearance.. Eating fire…" Natsu snapped out of his laughing spree and looked at the short figure in the mask. "What?" he simply replied, scratching his head in a slightly careless fashion. "Are you.. the one they call.. Salamander?" Ridik asked nervously.

Natsu flashed another big smile, more self-confident than simply childish this time. "Yup, that's me." Almost as to prove himself, Natsu then enveloped his own body in flames, turning into a human torch. "When it's a battle of fire, there's no way I'm gonna lose!" he said, a slightly mocking tone in his voice. Ridik gritted his teeth at the comment. He knew it was true. Against someone who was immune to fire, his blazing magic wouldn't do him any good. _"However"_, he thought, _"Magic isn't all about flashy elemental techniques.."_

He started removing the bells from his clothing, gathering them in his hands. "Luckily for me, I have more than flames up my sleeves, boy", Ridik replied chilly. Natsu looked a bit confused, his muscles automatically tensing up, preparing to move instantly if necessary. The jester threw all the bells high up into the air and clapped his hands together.

The bells moved around, aligning themselves, and forming a giant, vertical circle. Each bell shone with a dim, dark purple light, which spread to cover the whole circle. Ridik moved his hands clockwise and strange-looking symbols appeared around the edges of the floating circle. Natsu recognized those symbols. They were runes. He had seen Fried use them many times, but not quite like this. Natsu was snapped from his thoughts when Ridik gave another clap of his hands.

A monstrous howl could be heard from within the circle, loud and blood-curdling. It sent a chill down Natsu's spine, but he didn't sway. He felt an evil, dark aura entering the area as a huge black paw with giant claws appeared through the surface of the circle. Ridik smiled wickedly behind his mask.

"Come forth, Obscurum! Guardian of the Netherworld!"


End file.
